“Your grandfather, however, did not seem to possess the family courage,” said the Knight, slyly. “Well, and what would you have? Wasn't he brave enough for a wine-merchant?” “The ladies will give us some tea, Leonard,” said the Knight, as Lady Eleanor and her daughter had, some time before, slipped unobserved from the room. “Yes, Colonel, always ready.” “That's the way with him,” whispered Dempsey; “he'd swear black and blue this minute that you commanded the regiment he served in. He very often calls me the quartermaster.” The party rose to join the ladies; and while Leonard maintained his former silence, Dempsey once more took on himself the burden of the conversation by various little anecdotes of the Fumbally household, and sketches of life and manners at Port Ballintray. So perfectly at ease did he find himself, so inspired by the happy impression he felt convinced he was making, that he volunteered a song, “if the young lady would only vouchsafe few chords on the piano” by way of accompaniment,--a proposition Helen acceded to. Thus passed the evening,--a period in which Lady Eleanor more than once doubted if the whole were not a dream, and the persons before her the mere creations of disordered fancy; an impression certainly not lessened as Mr. Dempsey's last words at parting conveyed a pressing invitation to a “little thing he 'd get up for them at Mother Finn's.” CHAPTER III. SOME VISITORS AT GWYNNE ABBEY It is a fact not only well worthy of mention, but pregnant with its own instruction, that persons who have long enjoyed all the advantages of an elevated social position better support the reverses which condemned them to humble and narrow fortunes, than do the vulgar-minded, when, by any sudden caprice of the goddess, they are raised to a conspicuous and distinguished elevation. There is in the gentleman, and still more in the gentlewoman,--as the very word itself announces,--an element of placidity and quietude that suggests a spirit of accommodation to whatever may arise to ruffle the temper or disturb the equanimity. Self-respect and consideration for others are a combination not inconsistent or unfrequent, and there are few who have not seen, some time or other, a reduced gentleman dispensing in a lowly station the mild graces and accomplishments of his order, and, while elevating others, sustaining himself.